Penny's Choice
by annettejarcher
Summary: Nobody believes Penny when she says she sees Vampires and Werewolves. Not even her family. Then her family is killed by Vampires. Still, nobody believes her, not even her grandmother who she moves in with. Now all Penny wants is revenge. The only way she can get this is by joining "The Brotherhood". An organisation that fights against Vampires. Just one thing, they are not what sh
1. Chapter 1

Wind whistled through the upstairs window, rustling her grandmother's antique curtains. Penny slammed the window shut. Her grandmother knew that she didn't like the window left open. It's how they got in the house. Of course her grandmother, the police, psychologists, and teachers didn't believe her story. The story sounded ridiculous even to her: Vampires. According to one psychologist that her grandmother had sent her to, vampires were a figment of teenage girls' imaginations, built from a suppressed desire for danger, sensuality, and the proverbial bad boy. The solution to her hallucination: get out and date a little.

Penny peeked through the curtain, causing a flurry of stagnant dust to dance around her face in the starlight. She had seen them, though. Five of them, to be precise. And here she was living with her grandmother, being harassed by reporters, and being driven from one shrink to the next, instead of being on summer vacation with her family. Vampire: it's what she wrote on the police report.

Penny glanced back at the clock: 2 a.m. She lifted the quilt from her bed and pulled her suitcase from underneath. She was leaving; she was joining the Brotherhood. She was going to get revenge for her family.

She left a note on the night stand for her grandmother. She wrote only one word on the paper: Vampires.

Penny opened the door to her bedroom quietly, stopping at the point where the hinges tended to creek. While her grandmother's vision was failing, her ears were as sharp as a bat's. She tiptoed through the hallway making sure to miss the two squeaky floor boards. Once outside she made her way down to the end of the lane to a taxi that was waiting on her.

"Penny?" the taxi driver asked. He shifted his baseball cap as he looked at her.

"Yeah, I'm kinda in a hurry," she said as she clutched the suitcase closer to her body. "So if we could just get out of here, I would appreciate it." She looked around the wooded area uneasily. She still feared that the vampires would come back for her. She was still unsure why they had passed her up.

"You expecting somebody, young lady?" The driver stated, squinting his eyes at her. "You seem a little young to be going out by yourself...especially so late."

"I'm 18," she lied. She was only 17, but she didn't want to alert the driver that she was running away. "Best time to fly is red eye cause it's cheaper." She avoided his gaze and looked back into the forest.

"Sure." He opened the car door for her, and she rushed into the back seat.

In the taxi, Penny opened up her suitcase; it was packed only with a few family photos, a diary, and one change of clothes. She left everything, including her laptop and cell phone, at her grandmother's house. The last communication from the Brotherhood, as they called themselves, told her not to bring anything that could be used to track her and that they would provide anything she might need. She slammed her suitcase closed when she noticed the driver eyeing her again.

Penny was not taking a flight like she told the driver. She was to meet her contact from the Brotherhood at airport baggage claim 2. He would be wearing a green Beatles t-shirt and sitting on the edge of the carousel.

At the airport, Penny gave the man two 20 dollar bills, the last of her money.

"Hold on, I'll get you some change," the driver said.

"Keep it!" She was already halfway to the airport door as she yelled back.

"That's lots of money for a 10 minute..." But Penny was already through the door and didn't care how long he had driven her. She didn't need the money anymore. It was on the do not bring list.

She made her way down the smaller corridors of the Gerald R Ford International Airport to the baggage claim area. She kept her eyes on the ground. She didn't want anybody recognizing her as the girl whose family was slaughtered on a quiet cul-de-sac in East Kentwood three months ago. Or even worse, the vampire girl.

"Hey there, Bella," a boy said behind her. A chorus of snickers followed. She stopped in her tracks and clutched her small suitcase in closer. "You here to run away with Edward?"

She turned around to face a group of boys who recognized from her high school. "No. I was just leaving for..." she stammered.

"Oh, the vampires are coming back for you now," another boy from the group taunted her.

"What you got in your suitcase?" the ring leader said, reaching for her luggage. "Stakes? Silver bullets?"

Penny shrugged off his advance, but the group closed in around her, and the ring leader grabbed for the suitcase again. She held onto it tight and stumbled back into a boy with bright red hair. She fell on the ground in a heap; her suitcase was flung across the circle of boys.

"Everyone knows that silver bullets are for werewolves," said a man from beyond the circle. "If you're going to pick on a poor girl who's gone through a very traumatic experience, you could at least get your facts right."

"Silver bullets, stakes, whatever," the ringleader replied. "She's still crazy."

Suddenly the ringleader was on the ground not far from Penny, and the rest of the boys were scattering.

Penny stayed on the floor, trying to hide the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Hey, man, you can't do that!" The ringleader tried to get off the ground, but a giant combat boot met the back of his shoulders and smashed him back into the ground.

"On the contrary, I can." The boot dug harder into the boy's shoulder blades, and he squeaked underneath the pressure. "What was that you said?"

"Stop it, please, stop it," the boy said with the last of his breath.

"No, you stop it," Penny's rescuer said. "Leave the girl alone and you can go."

The bully didn't respond. Penny couldn't tell if it was because he couldn't breathe or because he was just being stubborn. The boot dug in again.

"Ow, okay," the ringleader finally responded in a barely audible gasp.

"Good, now you and the rest of your goons get out of here before I use her silver bullets on the lot of you." The bully slowly pulled himself off the floor and crawled away to his goons. Penny looked up just in time to see them running away toward the concourses. She crawled slowly over to her suitcase. She wasn't hurt, but her pride was damaged, and the contents of her suitcase were strewn about the airport floor.

"We didn't realize that you were such a local celebrity," her savior said as he stooped down to help her pick up her meagre belongings. "Perhaps it's been your outspoken 'craziness', so to speak that has kept you safe from them coming back for you."

Penny just sat cross legged on the floor. She hardly heard anything the man had said but rather was looking intently at a picture of her family.

"Penny? Penny, are you okay?"

"Yeah...yes. I'm fine. Wait, coming back for me?" She looked up at her savior and realized for the first time that he was wearing a green Beatles t-shirt. "Oh, you're my contact."

"Yes, I am. You can call me Charles." He locked the suitcase back up and pulled Penny up. "I was sitting over there when I saw them taunting you. Then I heard something about stakes and silver bullets and figured I was probably meeting you. Do you get attacked often?"

"Yeah, first by vampires, then humans. Not sure which are worse at the moment. At least vampires don't linger..."

"Oh, vampires linger. Trust me, if you had stayed with your grandmother, they would have come back for you eventually...ya know, when the media died down. And they wouldn't have made it quick like your family either."

"Oh, I didn't...I need to sit down." When she leaned over her blonde hair fell into a heap on Charles' shoulder.

"There will be time to sit in the car. We need to get going now." Charles put his arms around her waist.

"No, no, I'm fine." She stood upright quickly. "Just a little emotional. This has been my home my whole life. But I'd like to get away from being called Mary Shelly!"

"She was a pretty good writer," Charles mumbled in reply.

"I don't care if she's a good writer! I'm not Mary Shelly, or some other vampire whore. I'm Penny Wolf." Penny marched right out of the airport doors and into the street, straight into oncoming traffic.

"First rule of hunting vampires: pay attention!" Charles said as he pulled her back onto the sidewalk; a dark blue sedan whizzed past.

"Sorry," Penny replied. "I just get a little worked up sometimes." She hung her head and stared at the sidewalk.

Charles took her hand and smiled. Penny felt better when she looked into his green eyes. There was a comforting deepness in them that reassured her that things were going to get better and that she was indeed going to the right place.

"I know what you're going through. Well, mostly – I never had the local media brand me as a vampire crazy." The black nondescript car drove up as Charles was talking. "There's our ride."

Charles opened the back seat door and motioned for her to get in the car. Penny poked her head in cautiously, hoping she could get a peek at the driver, but there was a tinted divider. Penny shuffled her butt to the other side of the seat. Charles put the suitcase in the middle and climbed into the car with one swift swing.

"Get comfortable. It's gonna be a long drive," he said as he buckled his seat.

"Where are we going?" she asked. Penny studied his expression. Penny liked his crooked smile and the locked-in-place curls that adorned his head. _At least I'll have something nice to look at on this long trip._

"Out West," he replied. He closed his eyes and clasped his hands on his stomach.


	2. Chapter 2

Penny and her sister Violet were fighting in their bedroom. Penny smacked her sister and screamed at her about stealing the boy that she liked. It was the last straw; it had happened too many times before. Penny was about to strike her sister again when her parents entered the room to break up the fight. But no sooner had her parents entered when five vampires, dripping with blood, entered through the window. One female vampire went directly for Violet and sunk her teeth into her neck before her sister even had a chance to scream. A gruesome looking male hurtled Penny into a closet. He bit into her neck and briefly fed on her while her family screamed in agony outside.

The vampire didn't kill Penny. He cut his own wrist and fed her his blood. Penny kicked and screamed, trying to refuse the blood, but to no avail. She was turning, and she had a hunger for blood. She burst through the closet door, looking for the first living thing she could feed on. She grabbed her sister's neck and was about to consume her first meal as a vampire.

"Penny, Penny, snap out of it," Charles said. He was leaning over her and rubbing her arm.

Penny sat straight up in her seat. She was a little disoriented in the strange surroundings. She grabbed onto Charles' arm as she recomposed herself. She had drifted off to sleep after about ten minutes of riding in the car. She hadn't slept much or well since the incident with the vampires. The nightmares that woke her up screaming almost every night, along with the insistence that her family had been attacked by vampires, were what had prompted her grandmother to send her to a string of highly qualified psychologists. None of them had been able to help her.

Penny felt more secure around Charles already. Unconsciously she thought that he could protect her in her dreams. But he could not.

"Sorry, I just have these dreams," Penny said, as she finally relaxed by putting her head back on the seat and releasing her death grip on Charles. "Do they go away?" she asked.

"Not completely," he replied. "The best thing to help them subside is to kill the damned creatures."

Penny looked outside at the scenery. Mostly barren landscape met her gaze. There was a sign for Salt Lake City in 75 miles.

"So, are you going to tell me where we are going yet?" Penny asked, thinking about how far west they had already come.

"California."

"And, anything more specific?" she asked. His mysterious answers intrigued her. He was a challenge, and Penny always loved challenges.

"Southern California," he said, still evading her question.

"Are you trying to avoid answering my question?" Penny prodded him a little deeper.

"Yes," he said, looking vacantly out the window.

"Oh, come on, Charles, what am I going to do? Do the vampires not know where the Brotherhood is?"

"Oh, they know..." he said, still staring blankly.

"Then why won't you tell?" She crossed her arms and thumped back into the seat. Penny didn't like it when people thought she was untrustworthy.

"The public doesn't know," he said, looking at her as if he were trying to decide if she was trustworthy.

"I'm not the public anymore either." she said. She uncrossed her arms and planted an accusing finger on Charles's nose. "My family was killed by those monsters!"

"So was mine. And I wasn't told till I got there." Charles lifted her finger off his nose and held her hand in his. Penny wasn't sure if she wanted to kiss him or slap him. She just turned her head and huffed.

Charles sighed and let go of her hand. "The Winchester Mystery House," he said quietly.

"Where?" Penny had never heard of that place before, but of course, she had never been west of the Mississippi before she met Charles.

"The Winchester Mystery House is a unique building and popular tourist attraction that was built by an eccentric widow and heiress."

"Why are we going to a tourist trap?" Penny asked. She didn't like the idea of staying at a place inundated with noisy tourists.

"Because that is just a ruse and a way that we support the Brotherhood. It was built to keep vampires out, well, and tourists too. The building has 579 rooms, but the public only know about 160 of them. Every odd feature of the house – and there are many – is designed with one thing in mind: keep the vampires out."

"Oh, so she had vampire problems too?" Penny asked. Perhaps this place might be more interesting than she thought.

"Took her family from her," he said. "Her husband died several years after the initial attack that claimed her newborn child. She spent the rest of her life building a fortress against vampires."

"Oh," Penny said. She puckered her lips in deep thought. "I'm sorry about yelling at you. It's just been a long couple months."

"It's all right." he said, squeezing her hand lightly before he let it go. "You're entitled to be a pain in the butt occasionally." A half smile flickered across his face.

Penny slugged him in the arm.

"Okay, okay, save the violence for the vampires." He resumed his position with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He was done talking for now.

Penny was about to resume her sleeping position when the car lurched to the side. Charles immediately jerked up and pressed a button on the center console.

"Bradley, what seems to be the problem?" Charles asked while he grabbed a gun out of the back of the seat and handed it to Penny.

"Um, not Bradley...this is Thomas," the man replied.

"Thomas? Thomas, what the hell are you doing?"

"Saving you from hungry werewolves," he replied, and the car swerved down another road. Penny saw the skyline of Salt Lake City on the horizon. She thought they must be going over a hundred miles an hour. She looked back behind the car and saw a large wolf chasing them.

"How long have you been driving?" Charles asked as he loaded a gun for himself.

"Since you left San Jose," the man said. "Overheard some werewolf talk. Lost the rest of them a couple miles ago."

"Thomas, you can't be here...driving," Charles said. Penny thought he was complaining about a rather odd thing. _Let the man do his job and drive_, she thought as the car lurched again as the wolf butted its head against the vehicle.

"Wow that thing is fast!" Penny said when she realized that the wolf was keeping up with the car's pace.

"And strong," the voice said over the intercom.

"Just shut up and drive, now that you're here," Charles said.

"I am guessing these things are killed by silver bullets? Or is that just a werewolf myth?" Penny asked.

"Silver bullets!" Charles said as he unbuckled his seat belt.

Penny followed his example by unbuckling and readying her gun.

"Oh, no you don't!" he said as he pushed her back into the seat. "That is for backup protection only. I don't want you to get hurt already." He went to open the window, but Thomas spoke before he could accomplish his task.

"I'd prefer that neither of you gets hurt, so both of you just sit back and hand me the gun," Thomas said.

"But you're driving!" Penny protested. Shooting a werewolf and driving an escape vehicle didn't seem humanly possible.

"I am more than capable of driving and shooting at the same time," Thomas said. Somehow Penny was not reassured.

"No way. I am not giving you a gun!" Charles said.

"What, do you want me to use my teeth?" Thomas said. Penny could hear a giggle in the front seat.

"Shut up! Just shut up, Thomas." Charles rolled down the window as the car lurched again with another blow from the giant beast. Charles flew back into Penny but quickly recovered and leaped to the window, gun in hand. Penny was not about to let Charles go out on this mission alone, so she disobeyed her order by rolling down her window to follow.

Penny heard a shot, but it was followed by another jolt of the car, so she assumed that Charles had been unsuccessful. Penny hit her head on the window seal when another jolt hit the car, but she continued to pull half of her body out through the window.

"Penny, get back in the car," she heard Thomas say through the wind-muffled intercom.

She looked up to the side mirror to give him an ugly look, but she didn't see anything in it. So she stuck her head back in the car and yelled into the intercom. "Shut up! Charles needs backup." she said. "Can you just hold this car steady?"

"You try holding it steady against a werewolf pack leader," Thomas said. "Fine, don't mess up your hair, though. It would be a shame for you to look all disheveled for Charles." She could hear him laughing in the front seat.

"Are you even capable of being serious?" Penny asked as another shot rang out, then a jerk that symbolized another failed attempt on Charles's part. Penny pulled herself out the window again and surveyed the scene. The mangy dog was distracted by Charles. He took a couple of lunges toward Charles's gun arm, but a couple of smooth and skilled manoeuvres from Thomas sent the beast into the car door instead. Penny's abdomen lurched into the side of the door.

_Wow,_ Penny thought, _Thomas is a good driver!_ While the beast was distracted by the handsome vampire hunter and the mysterious driver's evasion techniques, Penny took aim. She had one shot before the wolf would notice her. One shot to take him down. Penny steadied her hand, and just as the beast lunged toward Charles, she shot it in the head.

The beast slumped to the ground, and the car sped off toward the city. Penny pulled herself back into the car. She smiled at Charles as he re-entered the car. "You're welcome!"

"What part of 'stay out of this' didn't you understand?" Charles asked, giving Penny a scowl.

"Charles, I told her to. You needed some backup," Thomas said as he rolled down the partition. Penny still couldn't make out much of the mysterious, joking driver who had saved their lives. His collar was popped up, and he wore a very large hat, a turtleneck, and huge aviator sunglasses. He kept his head down.

"She could have gotten hurt," Charles said. He poked Thomas's shoulder with his finger.

"I wasn't going to let her get hurt," Thomas replied. "And I wasn't going to let you get hurt either."

"Hey, I'm not a lady in distress here," Penny spoke up. She didn't like their conversation planning her actions with her right there. She could handle herself, as she had just proved with the werewolf.

"Of course not," Thomas said. "Charles can just be a little intense and overprotective sometimes."

"All right, good job, Penny," Charles said. He ruffled his perfect hair and sighed. "Just try to follow orders next time, and I will be sure to include you more, okay?"

"Sounds good." Penny smiled as she spoke to Charles. She was going to like this charming guy, and she had no one to steal him from her anymore. Penny fought back a tear at that thought; she would give anything to have her sister back, even if Violet did like to steal the cute boys from her.

"Thomas, pull over so I can drive," Charles said as he leaned forward in his seat. "You need to get out of here."

"Now?" Thomas asked. Penny wasn't sure what he meant by that question. When was a better time?

"Fine, you are so vain. We'll pull over at nightfall," Charles said. He nervously drummed the seat back.

"Oh, look who's talking! Your hair is messed up, by the way," Thomas said as the partition went up again.

"Excuse me, I don't understand what is going on. Who are you, anyway?" Penny asked through the half-raised wall.

"He's just an old friend," Charles told her.

"So, he's not part of the Brotherhood?" Penny asked with a raised eyebrow. "What was all this about not telling me anything because of the public?"

"Look, Penny, please, please, don't mention Thomas to anyone in the Brotherhood. Forget that Thomas had anything to do with this. Can I trust you? Can you trust me? Please." Charles took Penny's hand in his.

"I was just harassing you," Penny said. "I don't think Thomas will do us any harm. And if I had friends from my past that were willing to help me, I would do the same thing." She hoped she had alleviated Charles's fear. She wanted him to like her. Plus, she hoped she would see Thomas again someday. He provided great backup and much needed comic relief in the heat of battle.

"Thanks," he said. Charles pulled out a mirror and fixed his hair.

Penny laughed as he put every lock back into place.

"Okay, maybe I am a little vain," Charles said. He put the mirror away and resumed his "I'm done talking" position. Penny however was no longer in any mood to rest. She had just fought and killed a giant werewolf. Her adrenaline was pumping, and she could not understand how Charles would just sit back and relax. He took one of his hands off his stomach and intertwined his fingers into hers.

The two rode silently hand in hand for another couple hours until sundown when Thomas pulled the car over on a small side street. The front car door opened, and Thomas stepped out into the shadows. Penny tried to get a better look at him, but he still kept his head down and never faced toward her. He quickly disappeared down an alleyway.

Penny and Charles emerged from the car, and Charles made his way around to the driver's side. She stood awkwardly by her door while Charles stepped closer to her and closed the door for her.

"Thanks," she said as she ran her fingers through her hair. "He's kind of...weird." She looked off in the direction that Thomas had disappeared.

"Yeah, always has been an interesting one," he replied. He took her hands and looked into her eyes. "I really wanted to thank you again for agreeing to this secret. It really means a lot to me."

"It's really not a big deal," Penny said, turning her head down to avoid his intense gaze.

"No, it really is a big deal. So thanks."

Penny looked up at him again. His eyes were addictive. "You're welcome," she said. She wanted him to kiss her, but she didn't know how appropriate that would be. Perhaps the Brotherhood had rules against fraternization. She hoped they didn't.

Charles held her gaze, and she felt like she was stuck in a vampire's seductive charm.

"I thought vampires were supposed to be the charming ones," she said and let a nervous giggle escape her lips.

"Oh, they are...very seductive," Charles said and gave her his trademark half smile.

"Well, that is not good because right now, I am sure you could get me to do just about anything for you," she replied, inching a little closer.

"I could say the same for you too." He let go of her hands and softly caressed her face. He cupped her cheeks in his hands and brought her lips up to his, kissing them lightly. Penny fought her instincts to grab him and throw him against the car.

"All right, get in the car. We have to get back," he said, pulling away from Penny. He walked around the car and opened the door for her. "You can ride up front."

Penny regained her composure from his kiss, trotted over to the other side, and got in the car. She tried not to stare at him, but his lips commanded her attention.

Charles drove the rest of the way to the Brotherhood sanctuary. Occasionally, Penny caught him glimpsing in her direction. She gave him coy smiles in return. For the first time in months, Penny was happy again. She had new friends who understood and believed her. She also had adventure and a place to call home.


End file.
